Winter Park Working On Budget Requests To Set Property Tax

WINTER PARK — Officials have started weighing costs for next fiscal year's proposed city services to determine how much taxes property owners would have to pay.

Preliminary talks among city commissioners and staff members Monday and Tuesday and similar sessions scheduled for July 27-28 will help shape departmental requests for funds for the year beginning Oct. 1.

City Manager David Harden said the staff probably will have its budget proposal ready to present to the commission in about two weeks.

Harden said he has no idea what tax rate he will recommend for fiscal 1988. Based on the existing rate of 2.12 mills, the city expects to collect $2,072,000 in property taxes this fiscal year. At that rate, the city would receive $2.12 per $1,000 of taxable property value.

The taxable value of property in Winter Park has increased by more than 13 percent since last year's assessments, the Orange County Tax Assessor's office said. Property in the city is valued at $1,153,559,953, a $133 million increase over last year.

Based on that, the city's rollback rate -- the rate the city would charge to collect approximately the same amount of taxes it has collected with the 2.12 rate -- is 1.88 mills.

Harden said a rate of 1.88 mills actually would generate about $36,000 more in taxes because of new construction since last year.

Though the city would not substantially increase its revenue with the rollback rate, individual property owners might have to pay more in taxes because of higher property values.

Harden said there is a chance he may recommend the city again set the rate at 2.12 mills. That would bring in about $250,000 more than this year's collections.

But his recommendation hinges on what the commission wants done in the city next year.

For example, commissioners so far have discussed hiring another zoning enforcement officer to crack down on violators; giving $30,000 to the Winter Park Housing Authority to help with repairs; providing an assistance program for employees with alcohol, drug, marriage or financial problems that would cost the city about $10,000 annually; beefing up the police patrol division by hiring three additional officers; and increasing sidewalk maintenance.

The commission also has committed to buying a computer system that will cost almost $1 million, a cost that can be paid in phases over several years. Among issues commissioners face is refuse collection. The city has spent thousands of dollars the past three years to give residents the use of large, wheeled garbage carts. The idea was to make the city neater and reduce the number of refuse collectors by using containers that would be emptied by a mechanical lift.

On Tuesday, Mayor Hope Strong Jr. asked for estimates on the cost of increasing the number of refuse collectors so that, after garbage carts or cans are emptied, collectors would carry the cans from the curb into the yard. Strong said he hates the sight of garbage carts and cans left at curbside after they have been emptied.